Railway-rail stay.



mam]; MAY 3, 1904. E. LAASG: H. H. SPONBNBURG.

' RAILWAY RAIL STAY.

APPLICATION FILED DEC. 21, 1903.

M VEJV'TORsL; M QZW 2,455 ATTORNE Y 0.. Warm "no. wxsm UNITED STAT S EDWARD LAAS, or ELGIN, AND HIRAM H. sPoNnNBURe, or ADs'woRTH,

Patented May 3, 1904:

PATENT OFFICE.

ILLINOIS.

RAILWAY-RAIL STAY;

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 758,978, dated May 3, 1904.

Application filed December 21, 1903. Serial No. 185,947. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that we, EDWARD LAAS, a resident of Elgin, in the county of Kane, and HIRAM H. SPONENBURG, a resident of Wadsworth, in the county of Lake, State of Illinois, citizens 'of the United States, have invented new and usefu'lI'rnprovements in Railway-Rail Stays, of which the following, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to the class of railstays which are employed for preventing the longitudinal creeping of rails on railways, and it has special reference to and is a specific improvement on the rail-stay shown and described in our Letters Patent No. 7 20, 362, dated February 10, 1903.

The invention consists in an improved construction of a rail-stay which possesses maximum strength derived from minimum weight of the rail-stay and which is manufactured in an expeditious and economical manner, all as hereinafter described.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a side view of the section of the rail to which the rail-stay is applied. Fig. 2 is a transverse section on line X in Fig. 1, viewed in the direction on the arrow B, which indicates the direction in which the rail tends to creep. Fig. 3 is a detached isometric view of the plate by means of which the rail is caused to abut against the side of the cross-tie, and Fig. 4 is a plan view of blanks from which such plates are formed.

Referring to the said drawings, R represents the rail, and A the cross-tie which supports said rail upon the road-bed. B in Fig. 1 indicates the direction of the creeping of the rail, which movement is resisted by the railstay clamped on the rail and abutting against the side of cross-tie.

Our present invention resides in the novel construction of the stay-plate P, which we manufacture from sheetsteel by cutting therefrom blanks C of the form illustrated in Fig. 4 of the drawings. The blank consists of the elongated rectangular main portion a and the lateral extension 6 on one end of said main portion. A plurality of such blanks can be cut out of a sheet without waste of material, as shown in Fig. of the drawings.

In cutting out the blanks we prefer to cut from the sheet a rectangular section of a size to form two blanks side by side. In the said section'we make two transverse slits c c equidistant from the center of the length of' the section and extending from the longitudinal edges thereof to the center of the width of the section, and in the said center we make alongitudinal incision d, parallel with the side edges of the section and extending some distance beyond the slits 0 0, which the incision inter sects. Each of the blanks C C thus separated from each other we bend the lateral extension thereof down along the dotted line 0 and to a position at a right angle to the plane of the main portion a and then bendthe extension 6 along the dotted line f to a position to cause the slitted portion 6 of the extension to stand transversely under the main portion a.

In this main portion adjacent to the extension b we punch a hole 9, which may be done simultaneously with the operation of punching the blank from the sheet, and we also prefer I to press in the said perforated portion a recess h for the purpose hereinafter explained. The opposite end of the main portion a, of the blank we bend up into a hook shape to serve as one of the jaws i for gripping the base'of the rail R, as shown in Fig. 2 of the drawings. In applying the plate P thus formed to the rail R we place the main portion of said plate transversely under the rail and hook the jaw 71 onto the base of the rail and simultaneously cause the downwardly-bent portion 6 to abut against the side of the cross-tie. The other portion I). bearing on the under side of the plate, serves to brace the abutting portion 6. Then the jaw z" is fastened to the plate P to engage the baseof'the rail opposite the jaw i. The jaw z" is formed with asquare hub j, which is placed into the recess 7t and is perforated to coincide with the hole g in the plate. A bolt Z, passing through said hole and hub j and provided with a head 0 and a nut n on opposite ends and thoroughly tightened, serves to effectually clamp the jaws c' and 6 onto the base of the rail. The plate P thus gripping the rail and abutting against the side of the tie A, which is securely embedded in the road-bed, preventsthe rail from creeping longitudinally.

\Vhat we claim as our invention is- 1. The combination with the rail and its supporting cross-tie, of a rail-stay constructed from a sheet-metal blank consisting of an elongated rectangular main portion and a lateral extension on one end of said main portion and provided with a longitudinal slit extending from the junction of the inner edge of the extension and adjacent side edge of the main portion, said main portion constituting a plate placed transversely under the aforesaid rail and formed with a jaw at one end hooked onto the base of the rail and at its opposite end with a perforated recess, the said extension being bent at a right angle to the plane of the main portion and abutting against the side of the cross-tie and thence bent intermediate the ends of the extension to cause the slitted portion to stand transversely under the main portion or plate to form a brace for the abutting portion, a jaw formed with a hub seated in the aforesaid recess and engaging the rail-base opposite the other jaw and with a perforation coinciding with the perforation of the plate, and a bolt passing through said perforations and securely clamping the said jaws onto the base substantially as set forth and shown.

2. As an improved article of manufacture a rail-stay plate formed of a sheet-steel blank consisting of an elongated main portion and a lateral extension on one end of said main portion and slitted longitudinally at the junction of said parts part way from the inner end of the extension, the said lateral extension bent down at right angles to the plane of the main portion, and the slitted portion of the extension bent laterally on a line at right angles to the slit and into contact with the under side of the main portion, one end of the main portion bent into hook shape and the opposite end perforated as and for the purpose set forth.

EDlVARD LAAS. HIRAM I-l. SPONENBURG.

Witnesses:

\V. H. C. JAQUES, THOMAS STRANG. 

